Grazie, Grazie - Prego, Prego Part Deux

Sorry guys, I know this is confusing...

While we were traveling Gen had this book of translations (English to Italian and German) full of ridiculous translations such as "My hands are bleeding!" or "He is still unconscious" and we laughed about these phrases throughout our journies.  One translation that we found particularly funny was "A thick fog has settled over the moors" and we found out why that particular line was in there while we were in Venezia.  At night there are ridiculous amounts of fog.  Ridiculous.  It's so thick that you can't see 10 feet in front of you.  It's not at all conducive to walking around alone at night, but it is conducive to running ahead, hiding in a small street, and then jumping out to scare the others.  The Aussies performed this feat brilliantly, but when Gen and I attempted this we jumped out too early and they were neither scared nor surprised.

The two highlights of Venezia were seeing Venetian glass being blow and of course the pigeons at Piazza San Marco.  Naturally we did both.  We took a ferry to another island to see the glass being blown and it was really interesting to watch.  We got there kind of late but managed to find one shop still open and watched a man make a bowl and a plate.  I can't even describe how they did it, you'll just have to take my word for it that it's complicated and very artistic.  As for the birds, they are a little scary.  At first all I could think was "bird flu, I don't want to get bird flu" but after about 10 minutes I conquered this fear and was covered in birds.  Gen, on the other hand, never managed to get past her fear.  She only let 3 birds get on her for an obligatory picture and she screamed most of the time.  In her defense, it is very weird and there are a lot of people that freak out while you are there.  At one point I had birds on me and felt someone trying to get into my pocket.  Initially I flipped out because I thought someone was trying to rob me, but when I turned around I realized it was this crazy old bird-lady woman and she was stuffing a pigeon in my pocket!!  Very bizarre.  She also threw a pigeon at Charles and feathers went everywhere. Needless to say Venezia was good and I wish I could have had more than one full day there.  To sum up: Italy = great fun and great food.  Our adventures over Christmas break officially ended on Wednesday January 17th, 2007 when we took a train back to Paris.  :-D

Once again, I'm sorry this took so long and there should be quite a few blogs coming to you in April.  Small preview of blogs coming to a computer near you: Michael invades France (Mr. Michael Landers came to visit me over his Spring Break 2 weeks ago!)

Rebecca does Normandie (I'm going to Normandie tomorrow morning at 6:45 in the a.m. and will return Saturday afternoon.)

Rock the Casbah, Spring Break 2k7 (10 days, 2 major cities, lots of smaller towns, the Sahara Desert, and a few Camel rides in Morocco.)